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Friday, August 31, 2018

31 August 2018, Writing - part
x602, Developing Skills, How to Suspend Disbelief, a Great Topic

Announcement: Delay, my new novels can be seen on the internet, but my primary
publisher has gone out of business—they couldn’t succeed in the past business
and publishing environment. I'll keep you informed, but I need a new publisher. More
information can be found at www.ancientlight.com. Check out my novels--I think you'll really enjoy
them.

Introduction: I wrote the novel Aksinya: Enchantment and the Daemon.
This was my 21st novel and through this blog, I gave you the entire novel in
installments that included commentary on the writing. In the commentary, in
addition to other general information on writing, I explained, how the novel
was constructed, the metaphors and symbols in it, the writing techniques and
tricks I used, and the way I built the scenes. You can look back through this
blog and read the entire novel beginning with http://www.pilotlion.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-novel-part-3-girl-and-demon.html.

I'm using this novel as an example
of how I produce, market, and eventually (we hope) get a novel published. I'll
keep you informed along the way.

Today's Blog: To see the steps in the publication process, visit my
writing website http://www.ldalford.com/ and select "production
schedule," you will be sent to http://www.sisteroflight.com/.

The four plus one basic rules I
employ when writing:

1. Don't confuse your readers.

2. Entertain your readers.

3. Ground your readers in the
writing.

4. Don't show (or tell) everything.

4a. Show what can be seen, heard, felt, smelled, and tasted on the stage
of the novel.

5. Immerse yourself in the world of your writing.

These are the steps I use to write a
novel including the five discrete parts of a novel:

Here is the cover proposal for Blue
Rose: Enchantment and the Detective.

Cover
Proposal

The most important scene in any
novel is the initial scene, but eventually, you have to move to the rising
action. I am continuing to write on my 30th novel, working
title Red Sonja. I finished my 29th novel, working
title Detective. I’m planning to start on number 31, working
title Shifter.

How to begin a novel. Number one thought, we need an entertaining
idea. I usually encapsulate such an idea
with a theme statement. Since I’m
writing a new novel, we need a new theme statement. Here is an initial cut.

For novel 30: Red Sonja, a Soviet spy, infiltrates the
X-plane programs at Edwards AFB as a test pilot’s administrative clerk, learns
about freedom, and is redeemed.

For novel 31: TBD

Here
is the scene development outline:

1.
Scene input (comes from the previous scene output or is an initial scene)

4.
Write the scene using the output and creative elements to build the tension.

5.
Write the release

6.
Write the kicker

Today: Suspension of
disbelief is the characteristic of writing that pulls the reader into the world
of the novel in such a way that the reader would rather face the world of the
novel rather than the real world—at least while reading. If this occurs while not reading, it is
potentially a mental problem. To achieve
the suspension of disbelief your writing has to meet some basic criteria and contain
some strong inspiration. If you want to
call the inspiration creativity, that works too. Here is a list of the basic criteria to hope
to achieve some degree of suspension of disbelief.

1.Reasonably written in standard
English

2.No glaring logical fallacies

3.Reasoned worldview

4.Creative and interesting topic

5.A Plot

6.Entertaining

7.POV

We saw how the topic of the writing
can potentially hold the reader in the suspension of disbelief. So, the question becomes, which topics will
work best?

The ideas of the unique and unusual
still govern the idea that a great topic can help suspend disbelief. Harry Potty is notably unique. The Hungry Games is a unique idea. The sparkly vampires, as much as I dislike
them, are a neat idea. The unique and
unusual sell literature. You can see
this from the very earliest novels. It
isn’t the mundane or the usual that works in peoples’ imagination. It is the unusual and the unique which
excites them.

Just take a look at most Victorian
literature. Dickens didn’t portray the mundane,
he wrote about the unique and unusual.
Oliver Twist and David Copperfield were not your ordinary subjects. Scrooge was not your ordinary person. Jane Eyre is a unique and interesting person
as are the ideas in Pride and Prejudice. These are all topic (ideas) that are not
normal in human society.

I’ve noted before that deus ex
machina usually begin a novel. Most
novels begin with a unique and special idea that is exclusive to that
novel. The author then expands the novel
from that singular circumstance. Almost
all novels work this way. For example,
Harry Potty is the child who lived. This
is a deus ex that defines as entire series of novels. Oliver Twist was the child who was
discovered. Tarzan was the child who
survived.

I write novels that are reproduced
worldview. I reflect the myth and
supernatural ideas into the historical and real world. This has been called magical realism. I just call it a unique and unusual view of
the world. This is my niche and my style
of writing. I want to use this style and
approach to drag my readers into a suspension of disbelief that they don’t want
to leave. I want to capture them with my
characters, setting, and initial scene and hold them in the suspension of disbelief
until the last word of the novel. This
is my goal, and one of the ways I attempt to achieve it is through an unique
and unusual topic. My topics, I’ll repeat
them are the supernatural, myths, gods and goddesses, magic, and sorcery. I throw these in as reigning topics in my
novels. The novels use these ideas as
normative because I am trying to hold the reader in the writing through the
topic as well as the writing. This is
the way you accomplish this and this is the way authors have been working this
since the invention of the novel.

Of course, the topic or idea of the
novel turns into the plot of the novel and this also holds the reader in suspension
of disbelief.

Thursday, August 30, 2018

30 August 2018, Writing - part
x601, Developing Skills, How to Suspend Disbelief, Picking a Topic

Announcement: Delay, my new novels can be seen on the internet, but my primary
publisher has gone out of business—they couldn’t succeed in the past business
and publishing environment. I'll keep you informed, but I need a new publisher. More
information can be found at www.ancientlight.com. Check out my novels--I think you'll really enjoy
them.

Introduction: I wrote the novel Aksinya: Enchantment and the Daemon.
This was my 21st novel and through this blog, I gave you the entire novel in
installments that included commentary on the writing. In the commentary, in
addition to other general information on writing, I explained, how the novel
was constructed, the metaphors and symbols in it, the writing techniques and
tricks I used, and the way I built the scenes. You can look back through this
blog and read the entire novel beginning with http://www.pilotlion.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-novel-part-3-girl-and-demon.html.

I'm using this novel as an example
of how I produce, market, and eventually (we hope) get a novel published. I'll
keep you informed along the way.

Today's Blog: To see the steps in the publication process, visit my
writing website http://www.ldalford.com/ and select "production
schedule," you will be sent to http://www.sisteroflight.com/.

The four plus one basic rules I
employ when writing:

1. Don't confuse your readers.

2. Entertain your readers.

3. Ground your readers in the
writing.

4. Don't show (or tell) everything.

4a. Show what can be seen, heard, felt, smelled, and tasted on the stage
of the novel.

5. Immerse yourself in the world of your writing.

These are the steps I use to write a
novel including the five discrete parts of a novel:

Here is the cover proposal for Blue
Rose: Enchantment and the Detective.

Cover
Proposal

The most important scene in any
novel is the initial scene, but eventually, you have to move to the rising
action. I am continuing to write on my 30th novel, working
title Red Sonja. I finished my 29th novel, working
title Detective. I’m planning to start on number 31, working
title Shifter.

How to begin a novel. Number one thought, we need an entertaining
idea. I usually encapsulate such an idea
with a theme statement. Since I’m
writing a new novel, we need a new theme statement. Here is an initial cut.

For novel 30: Red Sonja, a Soviet spy, infiltrates the
X-plane programs at Edwards AFB as a test pilot’s administrative clerk, learns
about freedom, and is redeemed.

For novel 31: TBD

Here
is the scene development outline:

1.
Scene input (comes from the previous scene output or is an initial scene)

4.
Write the scene using the output and creative elements to build the tension.

5.
Write the release

6.
Write the kicker

Today: Suspension of
disbelief is the characteristic of writing that pulls the reader into the world
of the novel in such a way that the reader would rather face the world of the
novel rather than the real world—at least while reading. If this occurs while not reading, it is
potentially a mental problem. To achieve
the suspension of disbelief your writing has to meet some basic criteria and contain
some strong inspiration. If you want to
call the inspiration creativity, that works too. Here is a list of the basic criteria to hope
to achieve some degree of suspension of disbelief.

1.Reasonably written in standard
English

2.No glaring logical fallacies

3.Reasoned worldview

4.Creative and interesting topic

5.A Plot

6.Entertaining

7.POV

We saw how the topic of the writing
can potentially hold the reader in the suspension of disbelief. So, the question becomes, which topics will
work best?

The point to remember is that poor
writing, no matter the topic will either not cause the suspension of disbelief
or will push the reader out of the suspension of disbelief. To see which topics are better than others we
need to look at two sources. The first
the unique and the second is topics or ideas that tip young adult
literature.

I’ll look at the second first. Harry Potty is one of those young adult genre
novels that has a topic that is just too rich and unusual to not enjoy. The whole idea of magic in the modern world
is a very entertaining and interesting topic.
If you look over the current vita of young adult writing, you see ideas
(topics) will all kinds of interesting magic and dystopian topics. I’m not saying that you should necessarily
become a young adult writer or that you should necessarily copy the young adult
penchant for the unusual, but the topic itself can be the draw and the power in
the novel. Young adult literature tends
to go too far for reason and logic to follow, but it still produces engaging
and entertaining works. The engaging and
entertaining topics in these works goes a long way to suspend the disbelief of
its readers. No wonder, the readers are
less sophisticated and certainly less mature.
The topic, to a degree, must be unusual and engaging to suspend the
disbelief of the audience. At the same
time, the audience is less able to discern the problems with the topic and
ideas in these novels. Where an adult
reader might scoff or laugh, the young adult reader will be captivated. This comes around to the point of the focus
of adult versus young adult writing.

In both adult and young adult
writing, the revelation of the protagonist is the point of the novel. However, in young adult novels, the topic or
ideas regarding the protagonist are as important as the protagonist. In adult writing, properly, the telic flaw of
the protagonist is the most important point.
In other words, in the young adult sphere, the worldview and topics of
the worldview are almost more important than the protagonist and the
protagonist’s telic flaw. In an adult
novel, the protagonist and the protagonist’s flaw are always the most important
consideration.

You can see this with Harry
Potty. The conclusion of each novel is important,
but all the frosting or fluff around the character and the magic are more important
than even the climax of the novels. The
characters of Harry Potty are not just romantic, they are superheroes and
messiahs—Harry is unstoppable and though incompetent, he is a living force in
the novels. Adult novels are not this
way. They might have romantic
characters, but the characters are humans or are at least vulnerable and face
life threatening consequences.

This is ultimately one of the great
differences between modern young adult and adult literature. One is topic or idea centric and the other is
protagonist centric. The ideas of the
unique and unusual still govern the idea that a great topic can help suspend
disbelief. We’ll look at that next.

About Me

L. D. Alford is a novelist whose writing explores with originality those cultures and societies we think we already know. His writing distinctively develops the connections between present events and history—he combines them with threads of reality that bring the past alive. L. D. Alford is familiar with technology and cultures—he is widely traveled and earned a B.S. in Chemistry from Pacific Lutheran University, an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Boston University, a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from The University of Dayton, and is a graduate of Air War College, Air Command and Staff College, and the USAF Test Pilot School. L. D. Alford is an author who combines intimate scientific and cultural knowledge into fiction worlds that breathe reality. He is the author of three historical fiction novels: Centurion, Aegypt, and The Second Mission, and three science fiction novels: The End of Honor, The Fox’s Honor, and A Season of Honor.